The gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, is in trouble for skipping the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. Sources close to the stylish businessman-turned-politician said he is struggling to get the NYSC to help him out with the problem.

The Lagos-based billionaire emerged APC’s gubernatorial candidate for 2019 during the party’s primary in Port Harcourt on October 1. Lawal Isa, Chairman, Rivers State APC Governorship Primary Election Committee, had said Mr. Cole got 3,329 votes to beat other aspirants.

According to him, Dawari George, a former aide to Rotimi Amaechi, scored 491 votes to come a distant second. Dumo Lulu-Briggs, another business mogul who stood the election, secured 38 votes while a serving Senator, Magnus Abe, got a single vote.

With only WASC and a testimonial from King’s College attached to his forms, it seemed Mr. Cole, for some undisclosed reasons, deliberately omitted his degrees as contained in his public profiles.

While he failed to indicate his tertiary education qualifications, the APC candidate sumptuously showcased the training he has attended across the globe and the many papers he has presented and positions he has occupied. But findings showed Mr. Cole went straight to King’s School, Ely, Cambridgeshire, the United Kingdom after he left King’s College, Lagos at age 16.

He is also said to be an alumnus of the University of Lagos and Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil, where he was graduated with merit honours in Architecture. Curiously, information regarding his tertiary education and the record of his compulsory NYSC participation are all absent in the document he filed with his party and INEC. Given his family background and the age he completed his primary and secondary education, it is very clear Mr. Cole got his first degree before he was 23.

The one-year service, organized by NYSC is compulsory for all Nigerians who graduate from universities or equivalent institutions at less than 30 years of age. Apart from being a prerequisite for obtaining government and private sector jobs in Nigeria, the NYSC Act prescribes punishment for anyone who absconds from the scheme or forges its certificates. For instance, eligible persons, who skipped the scheme, are liable to be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and/or N2, 000 fine, based on Section 13 of the NYSC law. In Section 13 (3) of the Act,
a three-year jail term or option of N5,000 fine is prescribed for anyone who contravenes the provisions of the law. Subsection 4 of the same section also criminalizes giving false information or illegally obtaining the agency’s certificate. It provides for up to a three-year jail term for such offenders. The APC chieftain would not pick calls or respond to text messages from this newspaper.

However, when contacted, on one of his allies, Tonye Princewill, said Mr. Cole could not speak on the issue because the party was yet to set up a campaign structure for the 2019 polls. All of Mr. Cole’s public profiles show he had tertiary education in Nigeria and in Brazil but none indicates the dates of his graduation.

ZENITHNAIJA could not also extract any record of where he served in any of such profiles, some of which have been edited recently. Attempts to speak with the NYSC spokesperson, Adenike Adeyemi, failed as her line was unreachable and text message to her phone was not replied. But a senior staff of the scheme, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak on the matter said the NYSC has no record Mr. Cole served or was offered an exemption.


See more:

https://zenithnaija.com/29191-2/

cc: lalasticlala dominique Mynd44

Join politics


N you will know your real self

oshiii wa laaa. e don deh smell.lolzzzz. The amount of nysc skippers in this regime,both financiers and co. I tire o

OP calm down. Mr Cole doesn't need his NYSC certificate before he can run for elective positions in Nigeria.
He tendered his SSCE certificate according to ur writeup so what do u want? Is there any law that stipulates one to tender his NYSC before INEC can allow him qualify for elections?

Please leave this propaganda and let the man be. If he's elected fine but if not let him go and sleep.

CROWNWEALTH019:

Nothing bad there joor.
It would have been a criminal offense if he had added a fake NYSC certificate there.

Wicked Wike,una weldon ooo.Even those wey have that NYSC pali don abandoned it somewhere

He is very safe. If he skipped NYSC, then that's the reason he didn't put his higher education status in filling the INEC form. In so far as the constitution allows senior school certificate holder eligible for governorship post, no qualms.
Problem arises when one certifies having a degree but with no NYSC discharge certificate to back it up.